Google is set to waive a 12-year-old boy’s exorbitant bill of €100,000 (£88,000/US$112,000) in advertising fees as he attempted to make his brass band famous online.
Fame came at a steep price for the Spanish boy, Jose Javiar, who mistakenly created an account with AdWords, a Google pay-per-click service that puts ads above search results and on other sites in August.
The customer gives his or her credit card details and only pays when someone clicks on the link.
Javier – whose parents had opened a savings account in his name – gave his banking details thinking he was actually going to earn money from ads on his homemade website.
The Guardian UK reports that the company realised that “it was all a mistake and that he did it without thinking”, a Google spokeswoman said on Wednesday. The search company said it would waive his exorbitant bill after realising the 12-year-old had made a costly “mistake”.
“A 12-year-old boy doesn’t want to start spending €100,000.”
His mother, Inma Quesada, told the El Pais daily that her son “wanted to buy instruments” for his band Los Salerosos, loosely translated as The Salties, in which he plays the trumpet.
His parents were alerted to the fact that he was racking up debt when the bank called them to warn them about the charges.
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